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Brand Opts to Go for Professional Basketball

ELTON BRAND of Peekskill, who started his sophomore season at Duke saying he would not turn professional and gradually retreated from that position as the Blue Devils marched to the finals of the N.C.A.A. championships, made it official Wednesday. In a news conference at Duke, he said he was opting for the National Basketball Association draft to realize a dream and earn the money professional basketball can provide for his family.

''It's always been a dream of mine to take care of my family,'' Brand said. ''Now I have the means.''

Brand is the first Duke player ever to leave college early for a professional career.

Mike Kryzewski, Duke's coach, said: ''Because of how well he has done, the decision-making process has been moved up. Elton is making the right decision for everyone involved. I am 100 percent in support of it.''

Brand said that he plans to finish this semester at Duke and attend summer school before embarking on his pro career.

''I will eventually finish, but just not in the four-year time period,'' he said.

''He's fulfilling a dream, I guess that's the main thing,'' Artie McGriff, Brand's older half-brother, said in Peekskill. ''That and helping our mom.'' Daisy Brand, who worked and raised her two sons alone, is now retired with a disability.

Brand, college basketball's player of the year and a unanimous selection for all-America, averaged 17.8 points and 9.8 rebounds this past season as Duke compiled a 37-2 record, including the championship-game loss to Connecticut.

Brand, a 6-foot-8 265 pounder with exceptional quickness and a superior inside shot, played center in college but is projected as a power forward in the pros. He could be the top pick in the N.B.A. draft and is certain to receive a multimillion-dollar contract.

Marty Blake, the N.B.A. scouting director, said he thinks that all underclassmen should stay in school, but he called Brand a nice college player who in Duke's loss to Connecticut ''got up and down the court terrific.'' CHUCK SLATER